


moon & stars

by brookethenerd



Series: Time Flies By AU [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:55:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22272940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brookethenerd/pseuds/brookethenerd
Summary: Steve figures out how to move on after losing the reader, and the girl who yelled at him in the library is, somehow, the biggest help of allaka Steve's story after the events of Time Flies By
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Original Character(s), Steve Harrington/Original Female Character(s), Steve Harrington/Reader
Series: Time Flies By AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603069
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	moon & stars

The entirety of the job hunting section of the library was spread across Steve and Robin’s table, the pair tucked into chairs and running through book after book, taking quizzes and reading job descriptions. Neither of them had any idea what they wanted to do with their lives; hence, the never-ending job search.

They made good money at family video, but it wasn’t a permanent occupation, and seeing as Steve was nineteen going on twenty, he needed to start figuring his shit out.

He’d spent three months mourning you before Robin knocked some sense into him; a month returning to the gate and checking for an opening, another mostly in bed - he felt, and acted, like a zombie for all of January - and the last moping about. It was Robin’s idea for a change of scenery, which was how they ended up at the library a town over.

With the task of job hunting, Steve’s mind found relief from its constant chaos - regret and guilt and longing - in the monotony of flipping through books. Robin was good company, too; she never tried to force him into a conversation about the things he was trying to move past, nor did she give him that pitying look Nancy and Jonathan always shot his way.

After a week of settling into a comfortable routine - library after Robin got off school, then work; rinse and repeat - he felt like he could breathe again. Each inhale still made his chest ache, and he still found himself searching for a face he knew he’d never find, but he wasn’t drowning. That was all he could ask for, right now.

Robin tapped a pen against her lips as she scanned the book in front of her - The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career - and flipped through the pages. She let out a long sigh, dropping her head against the book. Steve looked up from his own text - he’d been rereading the same paragraph for five minutes, and Robin’s irritation was a welcome distraction - and leaned against the table.

“I take it you’re not _finding your path_?” He cocked a brow when she lifted her head, and she gave him a withering look.

“How can we be expected to decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives when we haven’t _lived_?”

“You could always join a commune,” he suggested. “I can totally see you with a flower crown, sitting around the fire singing Kumbaya.”

Robin toyed with the end of one of her braids, mouth twitching into a half-smile. 

“Pretty sure Sharon Tate would disagree with you.”

Steve let out a harsh breath, shaking his head.

“ _Jesus_. Eleven AM, and already with the Manson jokes.”

“You’re the one who brought up Kumbaya,” she said, a sly grin on her lips.

“Fine, Kumbaya, _withdrawn_.”

Robin opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted when a girl stomped up to the table.

Her hair was so blonde it was nearly white and fell just past her chin in waves that seemed to shimmer like water as she moved. Every inch of visible skin was dusted with freckles, bunched up prominently around her nose, below her narrowed eyes. She wasn’t all that tall or particularly intimidating in a dark tee and an oversized faded denim jacket, but there was pure fury in her eyes.

“ _You_!” The girl hissed, gaze flicking between Steve and Robin. The pair exchanged a look, frowning.

“Us?” Robin asked.

“You’re the ones _hogging_ every career book in this _goddamn_ building,” she said, brows arched over dark eyes.

“Uh…sorry-” Steve started.

“You should be! I mean, all the books basically say the same thing. Do you need twenty of them? Other people are trying to figure out what bullshit job to die in, too, you know,” she said, and Steve smiled.

The sensation was unfamiliar - he didn’t think he’d smiled in three months - but he decided he liked it; he _missed_ it. The girl’s brows twitched at his grin, some of her anger faltering.

“That’s our bad. Sorry for hogging them,” Steve said. “You’re right. You _totally_ deserve to figure out what bullshit job to die in.”

Her lips curled up in a smile, revealing a dimple in her cheek, and the light bounced off a tiny stud in her nose. She was beautiful, Steve thought. Even angry and yelling at him, she was absolutely enchanting.

“Thank you.”

Steve stacked a pile of career books and pushed them toward her. He expected her to take them and return to wherever she’d been sitting, but she merely tugged out the chair across from him and plopped down. She tugged the book off the top and lifted her gaze to Steve’s.

“I’m Aurora,” she said.

“Steve.”

* * *

“Steve! Aurora’s here!” Robin called his name from the front of the store, and Steve picked his way around the back room - a new shipment had them badly behind on inventory - but only made it to the front of the room when Aurora stepped through the doorway. Half her hair was wrapped in a knot on top of her head, like a little white puffball. As per usual, almost every one of her fingers had some silver ring on it, and she wore a thin chain around her neck.

“Employees only,” she read off the door, leaning with a hip pressed against the doorway.

“Looks like you’re stuck out there.” Steve stopped just out of her reach, lips curving up. She arched a brow and stepped dramatically over the doorframe and into the stock room.

“What a rebel,” he said. Her grin widened, and the dimple in her cheek winked into sight. But just as quickly as it came, the smile faded from her lips.

“I thought we should talk about…last night.”

They’d gone to the movies the night before, and on her doorstep afterward, she leaned in to kiss him, and he’d told her he couldn’t. He didn’t mention your name, but Aurora was perceptive enough to understand someone was still in the way. She’d gone inside before Steve had gotten a chance to explain, and he went home with his stomach churning with guilt.

Guilt because he liked Aurora, and didn’t want to hurt her, but also guilt because he liked her, and she wasn’t…wasn’t _you_.

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything you don’t want to do. If you’re working through some stuff, that’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t mean to…push things.”

Steve shook his head, raking a hand through his hair. He searched for the words to explain the thing he didn’t completely understand himself.

“You didn’t push anything. I just…lost someone, a few months back, and I haven’t…liked anyone the way I like you since them. It…it feels like…” he trailed off, brows furrowed.

But Aurora understood.

“Like you’re betraying them,” she said. Steve frowned, meeting her haze. She took a breath, tucking the stray hairs behind her ears. “When I was sixteen, my boyfriend and I were in a car accident. I made it. He didn’t. And when they finally let me out of the hospital, I swear to god, I laid in bed for two months. I didn’t understand why he was gone. And living without him…doing all the things we used to do together….” She stopped, giving him a sad smile. “It’s the hardest thing in the world, to keep living when the person you live for is gone.”

Steve’s lips parted; he didn’t know what to say, how to articulate what he felt; _I know, I understand, I’m sorry._

He settled for the latter.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. Aurora blinked away the moisture in her eyes and shrugged a shoulder.

“I just mean, I get it. And if you’re not ready, I get that, too,” she said.

Steve’s stomach rolled, and he realized the decision he’d been agonizing over had already been made. It had been made a long time before he even met Aurora; it was made by you, back in the forest.

_“Stop being so hard on yourself. When I look you up, I know you’ll be someone great. You’ll get there. You’ll figure it out. Even if you don’t think you will.”_

“Aurora,” he said softly, and her brows furrowed over her deep, dark eyes. He reached up to cup her cheeks, thumbs ghosting across her cheeks and the dozens of freckles dotting her skin.

When she stretched up to kiss him, this time, he let her. He wound his arms around her waist and tugged her against him and kissed her back.

* * *

The monsters may have left Hawkins long ago, but they didn’t leave Steve’s mind. The memories played on a never-ending track in his dreams, each moment just as real as it was the first time, the fear making him wake damp with sweat.

He jolted upward with a gasp, hands flying to his chest, searching for claws that didn’t follow him into consciousness. Aurora sat up beside him, hands engulfed in the fabric of one of his long-sleeved tees when they reached for him, drawing his eyes to her face.

“Hey,” she said, voice low and steady, “You’re alright. You’re alright. Just look at me.”

He sucked in breath after breath, body trembling as his mind pieced itself back together, the line between reality and nightmare unblurring. Aurora kept her arms around him the whole time, cheek pressed against his shoulder, and he aligned his breathing with hers.

When he could breathe normally, she sat back against the side wall - her bed was pressed against one corner - and Steve leaned against the headboard, her legs across his. He let his arms settle atop her thighs, head tipped back against the wall.

She didn’t ask him to talk; she just seemed to understand he wanted to; seemed to understand he was working up to it.

“A few years ago, a boy named Will Byers disappeared from Hawkins…”

He told the story in all its hideous glory - all its loss and death and bloodshed - up until the day you fell through a hole in time - a story for another time - and Aurora listened without interruption. He half expected her to burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the tale, but she didn’t. She didn’t doubt him or laugh at him or question him.

Instead, she leaned forward, reaching out her pointer finger to lightly touch the uneven bridge of his nose.

“Do you still have the bat?” She asked, like he hadn’t just spilled the beans that monsters and parallel universes and telepaths existed. It was so utterly _Aurora_ , and Steve’s chest swelled with warmth.

“Of course,” he said, “I still have the bat.”

* * *

Dustin and his friends loved Aurora, as Steve knew they would. She’s pretty hard _not_ to love. They asked her questions and blushed when she asked them questions, and by the end of the afternoon, she had their unwavering affection.

It was a great day until, on the way out, Dustin said to Steve, “Y/N would have liked her,” loud enough for Aurora to hear.

When they got into the car, Aurora licked her lips and looked at Steve in the driver’s seat.

“Is Y/N the one you lost?” She asked. Steve flinched at the second use of that name in one day - after months of not hearing it, it felt like a sting each time - and Aurora’s cheeks flushed. She looked away, shaking her head.

“I”m sorry. You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business,” she said.

“No,” Steve said. “It is.”

A crease formed between her brow, but she didn’t say anything else. Once again, she let Steve spin the unbelievable tale that was his life, and this time, he didn’t leave you out. He thought it might be awkward talking about you in front of his current girlfriend, but Aurora was unfazed as she listened. And when Steve’s voice caught on your name, she took his hand and squeezed it tight.

When he told her that you were coming back - that in 2019, the timeline would correct itself - Aurora wasn’t mad or even surprised. Considering the subject matter of the story, he wouldn’t have believed it had he been told.

But Aurora trusted him; she’d proved that over and over again.

She said, “I’m excited to meet them one day,” and Steve knew at that moment he loved her.

It felt a little like betrayal, but it got easier every day. He found his way, with Aurora beside him.

And he was happy, just as you’d always wanted him to be.


End file.
